Dozens of Gazans stood amid bombed-out buildings within the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to pay their respects to Anas al-Sharif, a distinguished Al Jazeera correspondent aged 28, and 4 of his colleagues killed on Sunday.
Hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya mentioned a sixth journalist, freelance reporter Mohammed Al-Khaldi, was killed within the strike that focused the Al Jazeera staff.
Mourners attend the funeral of Al Jazeera journalists Anas Al Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and one other colleague, who had been killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City August 11, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Mourners together with males sporting blue journalists’ flak jackets carried their our bodies, wrapped in white shrouds with their faces uncovered, by way of slim alleys to their graves.
Israel confirmed it had focused Sharif, whom it labelled a “terrorist” affiliated with Hamas, alleging he “posed as a journalist”.
Al Jazeera mentioned 4 different staff — correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa — had been killed when the strike hit a tent arrange for journalists outdoors the principle gate of Al-Shifa.
An Israeli navy assertion accused Sharif of heading a Hamas “terrorist cell” and being “responsible for advancing rocket attacks” towards Israelis.
The navy launched paperwork alleging to point out the date of Sharif’s enlistment with Hamas in 2013, an harm report from 2017 and the identify of his navy unit and rank.
According to native journalists who knew him, Sharif had labored in the beginning of his profession with a Hamas communication workplace, the place his position was to publicise occasions organised by the group that has dominated the Gaza Strip since 2006.
Sharif was one of many Al Jazeera’s most recognisable faces engaged on the bottom in Gaza, offering day by day stories on the now 22-month-old struggle.
Media freedom teams have condemned the Israeli strike on journalists, which the U.N. human rights company referred to as a “grave breach of international humanitarian law”.
‘Attempt to silence’
A posthumous message, written by Sharif in April in case of his dying, was revealed on-line saying he had been silenced and urging individuals “not to forget Gaza”.
In July, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) referred to as for his safety following on-line posts by an Israeli navy spokesman.
The group had accused Israel of a “pattern” of labelling journalists militants “without providing credible evidence”, and mentioned the navy had levelled comparable accusations towards media staff in Gaza together with Al Jazeera workers.
“International law is clear that active combatants are the only justified targets in a war setting,” Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s chief government, instructed AFP on Monday.
Unless Israel “can demonstrate that Anas al-Sharif was still an active combatant, then there is no justification for his killing”, she mentioned.
Al Jazeera referred to as the assault “a desperate attempt to silence voices exposing the Israeli occupation”, because it described Sharif as “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”.
The Qatari broadcaster additionally mentioned the strike adopted “repeated incitement” and calls by Israeli officers to focus on Sharif and his colleagues.
Reporters Without Borders says practically 200 journalists have been killed within the struggle, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 assault on Israel.
Israel prevents worldwide reporters from coming into Gaza, besides on occasional tightly managed journeys with the navy.
The strike on the information staff in Gaza City got here days after the Israeli safety cupboard had authorised plans to despatched troops into the world, a call met with mounting home and worldwide criticism.
Israel’s offensive has killed a minimum of 61,499 Palestinians, in line with the well being ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the United Nations says are dependable.
Hamas’s October 2023 assault on Israel resulted within the deaths of 1,219 individuals, in line with an AFP tally based mostly on official figures.
